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| Hiking | 8.50 Miles |
1,953 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.50 Miles | 7 Hrs 19 Mns | | 1.25 mph |
| 1,953 ft AEG | 30 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Four years ago I came across information about a number of ancient ruin sites in the Del Shay Cabin area but without an appropriate vehicle I simply filed it away for some day. Well, I figured it was time for that 'some day' and began planning a trip. But with Tracey not yet ready to tackle a backpacking trip that meant I had to find some way other than the nearly 13 mile round-trip to Del Shay Cabin on Trail #41. While we could handle that distance in a day hike, it wouldn't leave us any time to wander around seeking out old ruin sites.
So, I came up with the brilliant idea of driving as far as we could on Forest Road 1938 followed by a short hike to the cabin area. However, knowing that what's on a map isn't necessarily what you find on the ground even with the help of satellite images so I drove out on my own last week to do the basic recon. If you read my Forest Road 1938/Skunk Tank Ridge triplog (http://hikearizona.com/trip=95501) you'll know what I found was quite different than expected and instead of a longer drive and very short hike along a Forest Road, it would mean a bush-whack down a slope with the potential for numerous cliff-outs. But at what looked about a 2.5 mile round-trip, I somehow managed to talk Tracey into camping on the ridge above Del Shay Basin along with a bush-whack down the slope. "Better 2.5 miles than 13!" I said.
While driving past our planned trailhead on FR1938 on the way to our campsite I really didn't like the idea of climbing through brush before even getting to the edge of the ridge because that would mean just that much more climbing on the return trip.
Plus, the terrain was much thicker than expected. So we kept driving all the way to our campsite, which was where I found two tall rock cairns the week before. Taking barely 15 minutes to put p the tent and load up our packs we set off along a line drawn from the cairns on what appeared to have been a trail maybe some 25-30 years ago and not far away we came across another cairn. So far so good, and with such heavy deer and elk traffic, if we hit a dead-end all we had to do is back up a little and choose another route around whatever obstacle we encountered. But that wouldn't last forever and eventually all semblance of a trail died away. Then it was just a matter of continuing in the straightest line toward the Del Shay Cabin.
However, with the GPS acting a little whacky (like on Skunk Tank Ridge last week) we ended up somewhat farther south than expected and followed a drainage to a cliff and were forced to turn right and bypass it. Not much farther down the slope we encountered an even taller cliff and once again had to bypass to the north. But we learned from this so on the return trip we knew what to avoid.
Off and on we would pass through some thick brush and steep loose slopes but it wasn't treacherous by any means and eventually we broke out into clear grassy areas. With tall 9" boots I loved it but Tracey with her Merrell Ventilators, well, they were quite ventilated, allowing the fox-tails to pass right on through and she was not a happy camper or a happy hiker! 
(Please, let's not take off on that tangent)  
Finally we connected with the old Forest Road 894, but with loose baby-head size rocks it was more hazardous to walk on it than everything else we had encountered combined. But moments later we're at Del Shay Cabin and there's plenty to explore. But with ruins foremost on our minds we didn't dally and set off northward along Trail #41. Just under a mile we branched off and climbed in the direction of the first rumored ruin site. About a hundred yards before my ruin waypoint eagle-eye Tracey found the first potsherds, one of them quite detailed with a black-on-white design. Scanning the area we looked uphill from there to the most logical place they would have been washed down from. And what do you know... right at the waypoint I had marked we found traces of rock circles. No other evidence so it was time to head for my 2nd ruin waypoint.
A half-mile farther we reached the second waypoint and found nothing but a large flat mesa with no distinctive high point. With absolutely no trace of any rock circles or walls we set off for the third of 5 waypoints. I never expected to reach all five in one day and with time passing, if we kept a good pace over the now relatively open terrain for the mile to #3 that would be our turn-around point for today. With a number of concentric faded rock circles it was slightly more obvious than ruin site #1. But unfortunately, even after both of us made several loops around the area there were no relics to be found. Oh well, time to head back the by-now 4 miles and 1,200' feet of climbing back to our campsite.
A quick stop at Del Shay Cabin for a short PB&J sandwich break and we were heading back uphill. Although we were climbing, it didn't seem that rough and of course we knew the areas to avoid. By taking a straighter route we cut off almost a quarter-mile and the distance from the cabin to our campsite was about a mile. By combining the best the tracks down and back up the round-trip will be right at 2 miles.
We saw a number of deer but either they were too fast or we were too slow so no photos. While we did not encounter any bears, we did see plenty of evidence with some huge piles of scat. Two of which were so soft and moist they had to be quite fresh... between Tracey and I we must have photographed a dozen or more.
I posted 40 photos on HAZ. The full set of 88 photos is here:
http://changephoenix.com/jpserver/web/public/album.php?id=634 |
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